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Torn Apart? The Impact of Manufacturing Employment Decline on Black and White Americans

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  • Eric D. Gould

    (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, CEPR, IZA, and CReAM)

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of manufacturing employment decline on the socioeconomic outcomes within and between black and white Americans since 1960. The analysis shows that manufacturing decline had a negative impact on blacks in terms of their wages, employment, marriage rates, house values, poverty rates, death rates, single parenthood, teen motherhood, child poverty, and child mortality. In addition, the decline in manufacturing increased inequality within the black community for wages and other outcomes. Similar patterns are found for whites, but to a lesser degree—leading to larger gaps between whites and blacks in wages, marriage patterns, poverty, single-parenthood, and death rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Eric D. Gould, 2021. "Torn Apart? The Impact of Manufacturing Employment Decline on Black and White Americans," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(4), pages 770-785, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:103:y:2021:i:4:p:770-785
    DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00918
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    Cited by:

    1. Leopoldo Gómez‐Ramírez & María Padilla‐Romo, 2022. "Some benefit, some are left behind: NAFTA and educational attainment in the United States," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(4), pages 1581-1606, October.
    2. Ines Helm & Alice Kuegler & Uta Schoenberg, 2023. "Displacement Effects in Manufacturing and Structural Change," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 2313, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    3. E. Mark Curtis & Daniel G. Garrett & Eric C. Ohrn & Kevin A. Roberts & Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, 2021. "Capital Investment and Labor Demand," NBER Working Papers 29485, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Noghanibehambari, Hamid, 2025. "Revealed comparative disadvantage of infants: Exposure to NAFTA and birth outcomes," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    5. Thompson, Owen, 2024. "Human capital and black-white earnings gaps, 1966–2019," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    6. Courtney C. Coile & Mark G. Duggan, 2019. "When Labor's Lost: Health, Family Life, Incarceration, and Education in a Time of Declining Economic Opportunity for Low-Skilled Men," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 191-210, Spring.
    7. Evelyn Ravuri, 2023. "Neighbourhood change in Genesee and Kent Counties, Michigan, 1970–2019," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 102(1), pages 107-127, February.
    8. Pinka Chatterji & Chun‐Yu Ho & Quan Qi, 2026. "Import Competition and Racial Disparities in Mortality: Evidence From the Japanese Trade Shock," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(2), pages 265-293, February.
    9. Mary Kate Batistich & Timothy N Bond, 2023. "Stalled Racial Progress and Japanese Trade in the 1970s and 1980s," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(6), pages 2792-2821.
    10. Charles L. Ballard & John H. Goddeeris, 2023. "Southern gains and northern losses: Regional variation in the evolution of black/white earnings differences in the United States, 1976–2017," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 90(1), pages 44-70, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General

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